Hit the books

To Carol Coletta, success in today's economy boils down to one thing: Education.

Anything St. Louis can do to get its residents more and better schooling will make the region better able to compete, said Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities.

Be it training for laid-off workers, programs to help young adults make the most of college or ways to help mid-career professionals deepen their skills, investing in education pays off.

"If you want to make one good bet, one hard bet, it's education," said Coletta, whose group is a network of civic leaders nationwide. "Everyone wants to pretend it's something else. It's not."

She points to studies showing a tight link between educational attainment and the average wage for a region. Cities with more college graduates score well. Cities with more holders of advanced degrees score even better. And in a global economy, high-end skills mean more all the time.

After all, Coletta said, St. Louis isn't just competing with Memphis and New Orleans and Kansas City anymore. It's competing with China, India, Brazil. And to win, it needs to up its game.

"It's not like the rest of the world is waiting for St. Louis, or any other city, to catch up," Coletta said. "Things, frankly, move too slowly, and we've got to figure out how to change the metabolism."

Small is the new big

For a long time, as head of the region's Small Business Development Center, Alan Richter was one of St. Louis' leading business-startup gurus. These days, he runs the Regional Union Construction Center in Wellston, helping minority contractors improve their business skills. He has always beaten the drum for entrepreneurship.

It is, Richter says, the future.

Small businesses and startups generate three-quarters of all new jobs, Richter said. But it's an area where the region has lagged.

For too long, he said, our region's economic development efforts have focused on landing the big fish. We don't do enough to nurture the minnows. Part of that is cultural, Richter said. Entrepreneurship just doesn't seem to be in St. Louis' DNA.

"We were blessed for so many years, for 100 years, with all these major corporations," he said. "We got sort of fat and lazy. We worked for big companies and had steady jobs, and we relied on that. That doesn't create an entrepreneurial culture."

But that big company culture is the past.

Elected officials and economic development groups must do more to boost startups, Richter said. They should highlight emerging companies and help them grow. They should put more resources into small business development, and focus less on incentives for big employers. They should build a long-term strategy around helping small firms grow here in St. Louis.

It takes time, and it doesn't generate the headlines of a new corporate office building. It's not sexy work, he said.

"But it's where the jobs are."

A new kind of manufacturing

Howard Wial sees St. Louis from Washington, where he tracks the economies of the nation's 100 biggest metro areas as a fellow for the Brookings Institution.

One thing he's noticed over the last year is that places that make many things other than cars — airplane parts, for instance, or medical equipment — have weathered the recession pretty well. And in that, he sees potential for St. Louis.

The region's strong network of aerospace suppliers, Wial said, gives St. Louis a backbone of high-end manufacturing that it can use to make more things that will be in demand in a global economy. It would be a smart move to help those companies, as well as struggling auto parts makers, to sharpen their skills and move into new fields — to build things they can sell around the world.

"Everybody realizes that the U.S. is going to need to export more and import less, and most of what we export is manufactured goods," Wial said. "That's going to create opportunities in places like St. Louis."

Maybe that means figuring out better ways to make medical devices. Or "green" technology such as wind turbines. Or advanced farm equipment. Whatever the product, it's a chance to use the skills that St. Louis has at making things to make a place for this region in a new global marketplace, Wial said.

"It can be a very good pillar of your economy."

Focus on what we do best

At some level, St. Louis needs to sell itself better.

The region does have a lot going for it, says Steve Anderson, former vice president for business development at the St. Louis County Economic Council. That shouldn't be forgotten.

In fact, Anderson says, we should shout it from the rooftops.

With corporate headquarters departing and auto manufacturing almost gone, it's easy to forget St. Louis' strengths in thriving industries, said Anderson, who now works as an economic development attorney. The region has strong universities. There's a growing biotech and drug manufacturing sector. The retail financial services industry is hopping.

"Look at Edward Jones. Pfizer. You have companies like (drugmaker) Sanofi Aventis that people are just unaware of but has one of its biggest facilities in St. Louis," he said. "Boeing is huge."

If the region wants to draw big employers, it would do well to focus on the industries that are growing to play to its strengths, Anderson said. Other vibrant local economies, such as Austin, Texas, have made a name for figuring out what they want, and going after it aggressively. St. Louis must do the same, and convince the next big drugmaker or retail brokerage to come here.

"A scattershot approach has worked for a couple of generations," Anderson said. "But it's going to have to become more focused. We've hit that point where you have to spend money where it counts."

Pull together

Sandra Moore sees many cities.

As president of Urban Strategies — the community development arm of St. Louis-based builder McCormack Baron Salazar — she works in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Memphis, all over. The places she sees work best, she said, are the ones that take a rigorous, focused approach to tackling the complex problems that every region faces — be they in education, job training or attracting business.

St. Louis sometimes loses focus, Moore said, lulled by the slow but steady progress that means it has never hit bottom, but has also never been forced to totally regroup. Now, with other, faster-growing regions on their heels, it's a good time for St. Louis to leap forward, with specific plans.

"We need to pay attention to the things that are right here in our midst," Moore said. "But it really needs to be very, very, very concrete. With an assessment, and goals we work towards."

And what are those goals?

Better schools, she suggests. Bridging the racial divide. Developing a culture that's attractive to young adults who can choose to live anywhere.

And how do we get there?

"It takes a handful of people in frank discussion, and then it takes really deep, messy community engagement," Moore said. "You need regular, ordinary people who are committed to the same thing. That is messy and harrowing, but when done well it results in a good, solid, laser vision."

And maybe, a jump ahead of the curve.